Doctor Who: Lucky Day ★★★

“I think I’m in shock. Like PTSD. Because what happened last year was not normal” – Ruby

Storyline
Ruby, now 20, is adjusting to life after her Tardis travels. She agrees to talk on a podcast with Conrad Clark, who encountered the Doctor as a child and has been obsessed ever since. He and Ruby start dating, but when they go away for a country break, it transpires that he has been deceiving her. Conrad is the figurehead of Think Tank, an organisation intent on exposing what they see as the lies perpetuated by UNIT about the alien threat to our planet. Kate is tested to the limit and unleashes the monstrous Shreek on him.

First UK broadcast
Saturday 3 May 2025

Cast
The Doctor – Ncuti Gatwa
Ruby Sunday – Millie Gibson
Belinda Chandra – Varada Sethu
Kate Lethbridge-Stewart – Jemma Redgrave
Conrad Clark – Jonah Hauer-King
Carla Sunday – Michelle Greenidge
Cherry Sunday – Angela Wynter
Shirley Anne-Bingham – Ruth Madeley
Louise Miller – Faye McKeever
Col Christofer Ibrahim – Alexander Devrient
Moira Clark – Kirsty Hoiles
Young Conrad – Benjamin Chivers
Jordan Lang – Kareem Alexander
Elsa – Madison Stock
Sparky – Paddy Stafford
Jack – Blake Anderson
Michelle – Aoife Gaston
Alfie – Paul Jerricho
Derek – Michael Woodford
Audrey – Tina Gray
Trinity Wells – Lachele Carl
The Shreek – Gethin Alderman
The Vlinx – Aidan Cook
Voice of the Vlinx – Nicholas Briggs
Mrs Flood – Anita Dobson
Influencers – Selorm Adonu, Calypso Cragg, James Craven
As themselves: Reeta Chakrabarti, Alex Jones, Joel Dommett

Crew
Writers – Russell T Davies
Director – Peter Hoar
Music – Murray Gold
Producer – Chris May
Series producer – Vicky Delow
Executive producers – Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins, Phil Collinson

RT review by Patrick Mulkern

Activism can often be characterised by self-righteousness and delusion – whether we sympathise with a cause or not – and Pete McTighe’s script captures that edge tartly. Fans and regular viewers know the fiction of Doctor Who to be completely true. UNIT has been thwarting alien invasions almost yearly since the 1960s. That is true, isn’t it? So we reject and loathe Conrad Clark and his Think Tank, who are clearly wrong. They are, aren’t they?

Lucky Day is another diverting spin on this season’s theme of: what is reality? What is fiction? What in fiction is reality? One thing’s for sure: no one messes with Kate Lethbridge-Stewart. Only a fool traduces her organisation and insults her Brigadier father’s legacy. It’s another strong performance from Jemma Redgrave, who’s become a series stalwart since her 2012 debut opposite Matt Smith.

Millie Gibson demonstrates once again, as in last year’s 73 Yards, that she can hold focus in a story as the companion alone. While Jonah Hauer-King is also excellent as the duplicitous Conrad Clark – he can play wet and adoring podcaster just as convincingly as the deluded, hostile activist. “It has been a chore getting to know you.” He’s vile.

Some of Ruby and Conrad’s stumbling courtship conversations don’t quite land, and the Shreek, while well realised, joins the swollen ranks of forgettable monster of the week. But as a holding-pattern episode, presumably shot while Ncuti Gatwa was elsewhere, Lucky Day keeps the season’s momentum ticking along, and the young Conrad’s sighting of the Tardis and subsequent obsession recall Elton Pope (Marc Warren) in another Doctor-lite episode, Love & Monsters.

What’s especially rewarding is that when we do see the Doctor, as he materialises his Tardis around Conrad, Gatwa glows with charisma and righteousness (here fighting “cowards who weaponise lies”), while we can only despise Conrad’s unshifting smugness. Surely, we’ve not seen the last of this nasty piece of work.

Read more:

• Episode 1 – The Robot Revolution review
• Episode 2 – Lux
• Episode 3 – The Well

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